Life

He was probably educated at St Albans Abbey at St Albans

St Albans

St Albans is a city in southern Hertfordshire, England, around north of central London, which forms the main urban area of the City and District of St Albans. It is a historic market town, and is now a sought-after dormitory town within the London commuter belt...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, and at Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

.

He became a monk

Monk

A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...

 at St Albans, where he appears to have passed the whole of his monastic life, excepting a period from 1394 to 1396 during which he was prior of Wymondham Abbey

Wymondham Abbey

Wymondham Abbey is situated in the town of Wymondham in Norfolk, England.-Background:It is the Anglican parish church of Wymondham, but it started life as a Benedictine priory....

, Norfolk, England, another Benedictine

Benedictine

Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 house. At St Albans he was in charge of the scriptorium, or writing room, and he died about 1422.

Works

Walsingham is the main authority for the history of England during the reigns of Richard II

Richard II of England

Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...

, Henry IV

Henry IV of England

Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...

 and Henry V

Henry V of England

Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

, including the Peasants Revolt rising under Wat Tyler

Wat Tyler

Walter "Wat" Tyler was a leader of the English Peasants' Revolt of 1381.-Early life:Knowledge of Tyler's early life is very limited, and derives mostly through the records of his enemies. Historians believe he was born in Essex, but are not sure why he crossed the Thames Estuary to Kent...

 in 1381. He shows considerable animus against John Wycliffe and the Lollards

Lollardy

Lollardy was a political and religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century to the English Reformation. The term "Lollard" refers to the followers of John Wycliffe, a prominent theologian who was dismissed from the University of Oxford in 1381 for criticism of the Church, especially his...

.

Walsingham's most important work is his Historia Anglicana, covering the period between 1272 and 1422. Some authorities hold that Walsingham himself wrote only the section between 1377 and 1392, but this view is criticised by James Gairdner

James Gairdner

James Gairdner was a British historian. Specializing in 15th century and Early Tudor history, he among other tasks edited the Letters and Papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII series....

 in his Early chroniclers of Europe (1879).

The Historia, which from the beginning to 1377 is largely a compilation from earlier chroniclers, was published by Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker

Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....

 in 1574 as Historia Angliae brevis. Covering some of the same ground Walsingham wrote a Chronicon Angliae; this deals with English history from 1328 to 1388. His other writings include the Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, the Ypodigma Neustriae, the Arcana Deorum, the Dictys Cretensis, the Historia Magni Principis Alexandri, the Prohemia Poetarum, and the Defensio de praerogativis et dignitatibus ordinem monasticam concernentibus.

The Gesta is a history of the abbots of St Albans from the foundation of the abbey to 1381. The original work of Walsingham is the period between 1308 and 1381, the earlier part being merely a compilation.

The Ypodigma purports to be a history of the dukes of Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

, but it also contains some English history. Compiled about 1419, it was dedicated to Henry V and was written to justify this king's invasion of France. It was first published by Matthew Parker in 1574.

The Arcana Deorum is a commentary on Ovid

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...

's Metamophoses; the Dictys Cretensis is a history of the Trojan War

Trojan War

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature, including the Iliad...

; the Historia Magni Principis Alexandri is a history of Alexander the Great; the Prohemia Poetarum is a commentary on the lives and works of many classical and Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 authors; the Defensio de praerogativis et dignitatibus ordinem monasticam concernentibus uses historical examples to defend monastic institutions.

Another history of England by Walsingham dealing with the period between 1272 and 1393 is in manuscript in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. This history agrees in many particulars with the Chronicon Angliae, but it is much less hostile to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster

Duke of Lancaster

There were several Dukes of Lancaster in the 14th and early 15th Centuries. See also Duchy of Lancaster.There were three creations of the Dukedom of Lancaster....

.